My daughter is a Thumbsucker?

Question

My daughter is a thumbsucker which makes it very hard for her to learn. When she's sitting for a couple minutes at a time she starts to suck her thumb which puts her in some kind of comfort zone and makes her not able to focus but relax. How can I stop this? She's four now and you would think that at this age she would know her alphabets but teaching her is very hard when that thumb is in her mouth. She starts school next year and I'm getting worried about her learning ablilty as a thumbsucker.

I too was a thumbsucker until age 13 and I have perfect teeth. My parents tried everything from dried cow poop, hot sauce (I now love hot stuff) and the nasty fingernail stuff and nothing made me stop. I gave it up myself in 1 day. I guess I'm just overreacting.

Answer 1

Ha! Some genius invented this thing called a Thumbguard. It's this plastic tube that goes over the thumb and you attach it around the wrist. So the child can still suck their thumb but they cant get that suction going so it's not as fun. My daughter sucked her thumb so bad she had a permanent callous on her knuckle. We ordered one... she hated it.. the first day she flipped out. :P After that she got used to it. Just do a search for thumbguard and you'll see what it looks like & how it works. It's kind of pricy, but it worked. I even checked ebay to see if I could get it cheaper, but they cost about the same on all the sites. I'd say do some research on it & see if it looks like something you'd want to try for your daughter. I had to break my daughter of it... she sucked her right thumb, which is the hand she holds pencils & crayons with. Sooo she was sucking her thumb instead of doing class work in pre-k class. Anyway, it worked for us :)

Answer 2

Well being 4 is very tough. Or so I remember. But try to encourage her not to suck her thumb. At this age she is very intelligent and can comprehend complex ideas. Ask her why she sucks her thumb. Try to explain to her the hazards, if any, of sucking her thumb, the germs she's ingesting. Find something she's more interested in than her finger. My aunt, whose well past 30 sucked her thumb, and so did her daughter, who still does at the age of 19. My aunt keeps her tongue stuck out all the time though even now. She used to suck on a shirt collar. Which I thought was always totally gross. And I also have another cousin who is 22 with 2 daughters who still sucks her thumb. I also had a friend in high school who sucked two fingers. He always had drool running down his face and shirt. I don't see the benefits in sucking your fingers. Is there some sort of relaxtion to this? I never was a thumb sucker. I would agree with the ability to speak, and learn however with a finger in the mouth. I have a cousin whose son speaks as if he has a pacifier in his mouth because of her refusal to take his pacifier away sooner. He is 3 now. And all of his words sound like G's. Like when he says my son's name, that starts with a J.

Answer 3

It's great that you're concerned about your daughter, but I'll bet she's just fine. It's very common for a four year old not to know her alphabet yet, so don't worry about that.

First, let me say that quitting thumbsucking is similar to potty training. If a child is resistant, there is very little a parent can do. The harder you try, the more determined a child can be to control the situation. And when you're four, you don't have control over much. So, I strongly recommend you let your child continue to suck her thumb as long as she likes. (I sucked my thumb into the first grade. At that point, I only did it at night. I did not screw up my teeth, and I'm a pretty normal adult. My family's efforts to stop me only made me hang onto my habit longer. In the end, peer pressure at school and normal growing up made me stop.)

Remember that this habit has probably served your child well in stressful circumstances, and I'm sure still does. It is wonderful that she can soothe herself. Is the "teaching" causing her to stress out and shut down? Maybe?

If you think there's a real problem, talk to your pediatrician or her preschool teacher. If she doesn't suck her thumb when she's actively playing with other children, or otherwise having fun, it may just be that she's not ready for too much acedemic learning right now. There's no hurry, really. Enjoy this last year with her before education gets really complicated!

Answer 4

My son was a thumbsucker until we bought him a thumb guard. We first tried using the bad tasting stuff but that made no difference to him. Anyway, a thumb guard is a silicone cover for thumbs. The design of the thumb guard keeps air flowing through, thereby stopping the vacuum effect of thumbsucking. So it's not soothing at all for the child.

The downside is that it's expensive. We bought it from the onestepahead.com catalog for about $70. My son stopped sucking his thumb in about 2 weeks. It was expensive but TOTALLY worth it.

Good luck.

mari

Answer 5

Oh boy, I can relate. My older daughter was a hard-core thumbsucker until she was 16 and finally decided to give it up. This was after she caused an open bite to occur from constantly jamming her thumb into her mouth. One thing that can result from thumbsucking is misaligned teeth but pacifier use can also cause that. My daughter ended up having to get two teeth pulled and wear braces for two years. That cured her thumbsucking. She never does it anymore.

Answer 6

i sucked my thumb until i was 9 years old. i am fine and almost 19 and about to have my second baby. i remember stopping. the only thing that is wrong with me is that one thumb is flatter than the other. i was teased and i stopped doing it in public and started sucking my thumb when i was alone. mom and dad and my brother tried every thing from all the nasty stuff to the hot stuff like tobasco sause. didn't like them for that. i quit on my own when i was ready

Answer 7

Maybe you should put something on her thumb( nail bitting stuff) or put a bandage on her thumb. I suck my thumb and I'm 15 now, It's never hurt me and my teeth are fine. Some kids grow out of
it .

Answer 8

okay, this is going to sound gross, but stick her thumb in her ear and get earwax on it. if you've ever accidentally itched your ear and then later went to bite your nails it is a very disgusting bitter taste. it's effective and inexpensive. also, like someone else above said, she'll probably get teased about it and stop.

Answer 9

maybe you're pushing her to learn too hard & she's not ready. she sounds like she's shutting down from being stressed, frustrated, or overwhelmed. so she needs to comfort herself to ward off the stress. try making learning fun, make it a game. she sounds like she doesn't "sit" & learn well, maybe she can draw & learn, or do something active, like hopscotch with the alphabet.
i sucked my thumb to go to sleep until i was 10, btw. got straight a's in school. but if i got stressed out or frustrated i stopped learning, i shut down. her thumbsucking isn't what's in the way of her learning, it's her frustration & stress. even if you get her forced away from the thumb, her anxiety will still cause her to shut down.

Answer 10

They sell a product called Thum Stops Thumb Sucking-Nail Biting at Walgreens that you can paint on her thumb to keep her from sucking on it.